Toy apparatus.



P atehted Feb. 19, I901.

G. A. WHEELER. I TOY APPARATUS. (Application filed 08E. 25, 1899. Renewed Jan. 26, 1901.)

(No Model.)

T6 NEY GEORGE A. WHEELER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

TOY APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 668,607, dated February 19, 1901.

Application tiled October 25, 1899. Renewed January 26, 1901. b'erial No. 44,833. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, GEORGE A. WHEELER, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Toy Apparatus; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and eXaot'description of the same.

The object of my invention is to provide an interesting, amusing, and very instructive toy apparatus for children; and the invention as practiced by me takes the form of a top provided with means for spinning it and having a level surface adapted to receive thereupon disks or sheets of drawing-paper, cardboard, celluloid, or other suitable drawing material, so that while the top is spinning the child or user by delicately and successively pressing .upon the revolving disk the points of differently-colored crayons, for example, may produce artistic or decorative designs or effects in infinite variety upon the disks, which may be removed, retained, and replaced by fresh disks at will.

In order that myinvention and its various features may be clearly understood, I shall first describe in detail the mode in which I practice it and then point out its several features in the claim.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which the same parts are designated by like characters in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of a top, drawing-disk, and spinning-cup embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a plan view of one of the said drawing-disks. Fig. 3 illustrates an example of a drawing-disk decorated by the invention, one of which, printed in colors, I furnish with each toy apparatus as an illustration. Fig. 4 represents a box of colored crayons to accompany the apparatus. Fig. 5 represents a spinning-step for the top, also to accompany the apparatus.

I make the top 1, by preference, of inex pensive metal, having a swelled periphery 2 to maintain it in position when spinning, a sleeve 3 for winding thereon the cord for spinning the top, a loose handle 4 for holding the top when drawing the cord from it, a spindle 5, having a conical foot for the top to spin on, and lastly, but particularly, a flat and level upper surface 6 to form a suitable drawingsurface. To rest upon thedrawing-surface 6, and thus rapidly to revolve with the top when spun in the usual manner, I provide a number of disks or sheets 7 of drawing-paper or cardboard, or it may be celluloid or other suitable drawing material, having central apertures to pass freely over the sleeve 3 of the top.

By lightly pressing variously-colored crayons 8 (of which a box is designed to accompany the apparatus) in various relative positions upon the rapidlyrevolving drawingdisk 7 a child may easily produce colored or other artistic designs or effects, as that indicated in Fig. 3, in almost infinite variety, and remove, retain, and replace such decorated disks at will. A child is thereby intensely and continually interested and amused, its artistic sense is cultivated, and its touch is rendered delicate and controllable, a light touch being necessary to press upon the disk without destroying the equilibrium of the top and also to vary the shading and effects of the design.

A sample disk 8, one or more, printed in colors, as indicated in Fig. 3, is designed to accompany the apparatus as an illustration for preliminary practice,and a step 9, in which to spin the top, is also usually furnished.

Having thus set forth the nature of my invention and the mode in which it is carried into practice, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent-.-

A toy apparatus comprising a rotative top with a pivot-footed spindle, a heavy disk or body having a level upper surface, and a winding-sleeve, and a thin centrally-apertured blank drawing-disk to pass loosely over v and around the sleeve and rest upon the level upper surface of the heavy disk as a table.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand the 24th day of October, 1899.

GEORGE A. WHEELER.

In presence of- CLARENCE L. BURGER, DAVID G. RoDE. 

